The Case of the Extra Hyphens

Pretty soon, I'll be reduced to posting monosyllabic grunts. Definitely had enough of the winter.

Thankfully Liverpool won 2-0 - so at least I can focus my ire on the weather. Ottawacker Jr. home again with a cold: so we have done some reading (Journey to the Centre of the Earth) and helped him to learn his French numbers. We almost came to words. It all started with the numbers after "100", and the insistence that his teacher had said there was a hyphen where there patently shouldn't be...

So here's the thing: when I were 'lad, we learned that there was no hyphen between "cent" and the rest of the figures: so cent un, cent dix-huit, cent-soixante-dix-neuf, etc. However, it appears the Académie française had enough of this ridiculous rule, and so in 1990 - without informing me, I might add - they mandated a hyphen. So it is now, apparently, cent-un, cent-deux, etc. What utter bastards. 

What next? Remove the space before a colon? No capital letters allowed on Thursdays?